Back to Multiple Property Submissions

This multiple property listing is organized around the built resources resulting from numerous federal programs of the “New Deal” era on Colorado’s eastern plains.  While the entire nation suffered from the economic crisis of the 1930s Great Depression, the eastern plains region of Colorado faced additional crises, including agricultural depression, drought, dust storms, and grasshopper plagues.  President Franklin Roosevelt initially developed his New Deal programs to provide relief to the destitute in all parts of the nation, but they soon grew to include special reform and recovery programs and policies for agriculture and areas such as the Dust Bowl.  This multiple property submission supplies a context for understanding the conditions that eastern Colorado endured during the “dirty thirties,” and provides a basis for evaluating the physical resources constructed as a result of the federal New Deal programs.  It includes information on extant resources from 1933 through 1943, based partly on a field survey in four eastern Colorado counties.

The historic contexts developed for this document cover those New Deal programs initiated to provide relief through work projects, to either improve or construct public works.  Although public works programs constituted only part of the numerous New Deal policies and programs initiated in the years following the Great Depression, they are significant for the resulting built resources in the eastern plains counties of Colorado.  The New Deal-era programs are presented in four major historic contexts:

1.   Roosevelt’s Alphabet Army: 1933-1943
2.   The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Soil Conservation Service in Eastern Colorado: 1935-1942
3.   The Public Works Administration - Building a framework for Eastern Colorado: 1933-1942
4.   The Works Progress Administration - Work for Everyone: 1935-1942

Numerous other New Deal programs also affected life in eastern Colorado during the Depression years; they are briefly mentioned in the introductory background section.  (Cover documentation accepted for the State Register on 12/16/2005; accepted by the National Register on 1/27/2007.)  Multiple Property Documentation Form (PDF, 7.37 MB).

Baca County

Two Buttes Gymnasium
5th & C Sts., Two Buttes
National Register 12/22/2009, 5BA.1146

Bent County

Bent County High School
1214 7th St., Las Animas
National Register 7/30/2010, 5BN.382

Las Animas Post Office
513 6th St., Las Animas
National Register 1/16/2008, 5BN.591

Kit Carson County

Burlington Gymnasium
450 11th St., Burlington
National Register 12/11/2007, 5KC.208

Kiowa County

American Legion Hall
Kiowa County Fairground, US Hwy. 287, Eads vicinity
National Register 12/11/2007, 5KW.87

Las Animas County

Kim Schools
425 State St., Kim
National Register 4/24/2007, 5LA.1815

Pleasant Valley School
County Rd. 142 just south of US Hwy. 160, Branson vicinity
National Register listed 8/13/2008, 5LA.11144

White School
Intersection of County roads 191 and 30, Kim vicinity
National Register 8/1/2008, 5LA.11139

7-D School
County Road 171, Branson vicinity
National Register 12/22/2009, 5LA.11145

Lincoln County

Hugo Municipal Pool
US Hwy. 287 and Sixth Ave., Hugo
National Register 7/24/2008, 5LN.206

Morgan County

Morgan County Courthouse & Jail
225 Ensign and 218 W. Kiowa, Fort Morgan
State Register 3/13/2002, National Register 4/1/2002, 5MR.466

Otero County

Adobe Stables, Arkansas Valley Fairgrounds
800 N. 9th St., Rocky Ford
National Register 12/26/2007, 5OT.478

La Junta City Park
Colorado Ave. and 10th St., La Junta
National Register 4/24/2007, 5OT.937

Rocky Ford Post Office
401 N. 9th St., Rocky Ford
National Register 1/16/2008, 5OT.935

Phillips County

Phillips County Courthouse
221 Interocean Ave., Holyoke
National Register 12/26/2007, 5PL.19

Prowers County

Douglas Crossing Bridge
County Rd. 28, Granada
National Register 2/4/1985, 5PW.44

Holly City Hall
119 E. Cheyenne St., Holly
State Register 6/11/2003, National Register 10/11/2003, 5PW.175

Holly Gymnasium
N. Main St., Holly
National Register 4/24/2007, 5PW.268

Lamar Post Office
300 S. 5th St., Lamar
National Register 1/22/1986, 5PW.43

Prowers County Welfare Housing
800 E. Maple St., Lamar
National Register 12/22/2009, 5PW.259

Wiley Rock Schoolhouse
603 Main St., Wiley
National Register 2/20/2004, 5PW.196

Willow Creek Park
Memorial Drive, Parkview Ave. and Willow Valley Rd., Lamar
National Register 8/10/2007, 5PW.56

Sedgwick County

Sedgewick County Courthouse
315 Cedar St., Julesburg
National Register 4/24/2007, 5SW.81

Washington County

Akron Gymnasium
W. 4th St. & Custer Ave., Akron
National Register 1/16/2008, 5WN.198

Weld County

Clubhouse / Student Union
University of Northern Colorado Campus, Greeley
National Register, 10/29/2008, 5WL.5840

Fort Vasquez Site (Fort Vasquez Museum)
US Hwy. 85, Platteville vicinity
National Register 9/30/1970, additional documentation 9/9/2001, 5WL.568

Land Utilization Program Headquarters / Briggsdale Work Center
44741 Weld County Rd. 77, Briggsdale vicinity
National Register 10/29/2009, 5WL.1591